Poker Strategy - $30 Pokerstars multi-table tournament

I'm going to attempt to describe my strategic decisions in an online poker tournament. The site I'm using is pokerstars and the total buy in is $33 (30+3). The extra 3 is the rake.

I will note hands in which I "vpip" or voluntarily put money in the pot.

The numbers displayed on the screen are known as a "HUD", or "Heads-up Display". The hud simply tracks statistics. I will get into the details of the numbers if I have a spot that utilizes them. The program I use is Poker Tracker. Also Villian = my opponent.

First playable hand qjs of the spade variety in the first position.

I decide to check here. I feel like we have an overall range advantage but very few hands we want to get 3 streets with on this flop besides hands like 8xsuited hands or high pocket pairs (even those could be aruged for just two streets vs some villans). I also don't think i immediate get a ton of folds, any pairs or strong ax w/ a backdoor flush draw will call this flop. So we check to the river and fold.

As you can see the stack sizes are smaller :(. I've loaded another program called "Starshelper" that has an option to display your stack in big blinds. I highly recommend this, as it makes late game math and sizing decisions easier then typing out 6 figures.

Next hand:

22, I raise to 2.2bb's (tell?) and next to act 3bets to 6.8bb theres one cold-caller and its back to me. I decide to peel here now that the other guy came along. Just trying to flop a set or fold and we get an a35 board and check/fold.

Here under the gun raises and I re-raise. Villan is raising 20% of hands overall so I'm pretty happy 3-betting a value range of AQo+AJs+1010+. I'll also have some hands I flat call with like smaller pairs. I cbet 13.6 bb's on this board. Villan is quite loose overall so I just want to continue here and get immediate folds from hands that have strong equity vs. mine like qjs. Villan folds and we take it down.

Next hand I pick up 66 right away and get 3 callers. The JJK board isn't to appealing and I "el check muck" as my good friend LuisCoppel says.

Cool spot alert!

I take an aggro line in an attempt to impress steemit and 3bet the old 75s of the diamond variety. Some fish overcalls behind and the original raiser (a tight regular opponent) folds.

Boom! flop a super sneaky triple 5's. Villian decdies to check and I decide to bet really small cause even though they are kind of loose, I think they still has a fairly strong range for cold-calling a 3bet. And to my delight, villain raises. I have no idea whats going on now but we decide to call. We now have around 40 bb's behind in a 40bb pot and villan checks now. I cant remember what the turn was but its basically all a blank at this point. I decide to check back in an attempt to get river value. He bets 7bb on the river after a backdoor club flush completes. I don't think he ever really has a flush here because if he did check raise one he would most likely continue the river. I suspect he has a weak single pair and is trying to block bet. I rise to 22bb's and he folds. Lets go were off to a good start in this experiment. :)

Pick up 77 right after the break, I raise in late position. We get a button call and the bb comes along also. 1010q flop and a J on the turn, I wont bore you were just done here.

BB peel spot:

I check flop and turn, on the river I bet 1bb so I minimize loses vs a flush and also get some calls from worse hands since I have giving such a good price. I prob. would never bluff this size but I could see value betting as thin as 2 pair for this size. Villan called w/ k7 no diamond and I scooped the pot.

Next hand it folds around to me in the sb. Without going into crazy detail with my sb ranges, I decide to limp q3o this time and fold to raise.

We check the flop, once again barring crazy detail we decide to check this hand, villain checks. Turn we bet 60% of the pot and they fold.

Hello jks of the heart variety, love that variety.

We go for another flop check and the turns kinda funky. We decide to bet small to protect from random diamonds and get some value versus weaker pairs plus flush draws.

This one might be kinda fishy. Late position opens off a short stack and I flat w/ ajo.

The flops less then amazing and we decide to check and fold.

Next hand we pick up the qq and I missed a screen capture while blabbing about that fishy call w/ AJo. UTG raises to 2.2 w/ 45bb's to start the hand, middle position cold-calls, villian has around 23 bb's (strange most likely weak play) we raise to 8.6 bb's in an attempt to call to any further action. Both players fold.

We then raise the q9s from middle position and the sb calls.

Villan decides to lead out into us and I make a tight fold here. Not really sure about this but I just didn't see them having a lot of air here. I would have defiantly called if I had a backdoor flush draw. You can see I went into the time bank during this choice.

910s club variety. Always a nice suit. Clubs.

Super sad boys when this goes down:

We raise k8s in the high-jack, pretty clubs again.

BB calls, we c-bet 1.7 bb's on this ace high board. They fold.

We raise a10s spades. I again play slow on the flop and check call. We get to this river and a 60% here, I think villain might think i have some bluffs, some protection bets on the flop might get skeptical on this river.

Villan calls and we chop vs a8s.

Then we raise a10o from EP and get jammed on.

Peel 68s from the bb and check/fold qk6.

66 in the sb vs an utg limp. we floped a set! I decide to go for the check/raise. I think leading could be kind of cool too.

I decide to overbet the turn here. Then on the river it comes an 8, making any 7 a straight. I bet really small now trying to get called by two pair type hands when the board gets so ugly.

Oh i forgot to mention we got it in AKo vs 1010 and the board ran out 45768 for a chop. :D

This happens:

The third number from the left on the top row is the 3-bet percentage. Here his is only 3%. I wouldn't consider making a play with this hand ever, but with other hands that's a statistic I will look at to base decision off. Since his is low over a small sample I would stray away from making marginal 4-bets or light calls in position.

Next up we raise 55 from under the gun.

I c-bet this board vs bb, I could see either play here but I wanted to protect.

We peeled 10js hearts from the sb 5 ways. Missed the flop.

We made light raise in early position.

Decided to c-bet and a bit bigger since the board is pretty wet. And if i had a strong value hand I would want to bet this bigger size.

Flatted 88 on the button w/ 27 bb's and folded to a c-bet vs two other players.

Down to 18 bb's now and in a zone where I mostly want to go "all-in" or fold.

We all in, short stack calls w/ 1010 and flops a set, were down to 7.6bb's.

Were hanging by a thread w/ 5.8bb's and a small dream.

We shuv 44 in early posistion and everyone folds! Back up to 5.6bb's in the bb with a8s, im going to Jam over a raise here.

A double up!

Folding, folding, folding, folding. I am 30 people away from the money. I will start to take my time with each decision to better my changes of reaching the money.

Weird spot here, we decide to go "all-in" over the limp.

Heres a shot of the lobby before I bust and forget to post it.

As you can see we are now in the Money! Gaurenteed $51.03.

Last hand we jam AJo over a raise! And we lost.

Awesome I'm slightly relived to be done. If you made it through all that congrats. I hope you may have learned something. Welcome to any opinions on the hands. Thanks so much for reading.

Oh and if that was way tldr, and you skipped to the bottom that's cool too!

-j0hndayt0n